Made for each other

There have been instances where men cricketers have married women cricketers. Australia’s Mitchell Starc and Alyssa Healey, England’s Roger Prideaux and Ruth Westbrook, Sri Lanka’s Guy de Alwis and Rasanjali Silva and India’s own Ruturaj Gaekwad and Utkarsh Pawar are the ideal such couples. The last named couple hails from Pune. Ruturaj, who has played 6 ODIs and 25 T-20Is is busy captaining the Chennai SuperKings team in the ongoing IPL and his wife, the 25-year-old right-arm fast bowler, playing for the Maharashtra and West Zone teams is now waiting to play the Women’s IPL.

Amar Pawar, the retired banker and the father of Utkarsh, also played cricket for about 30 years. “I am proud to give my daughter’s hand to Ruturaj. It is nice to know both have a common interest in cricket,” he said adding, “My daughter is traveling with the CSK team. In fact, during my recent trip to Puducherry I made a trip to Chennai and met Utkarsh and my son-in-law. Ruturaj is a very calm and composed man.”

Utkarsh’s mother, Sunetra is a housewife.

Elaborating more about Utkarsh, her childhood coach, Anwar Shaikh says, “During her childhood days, she was more interested in badminton and football. Her father brought her to me and I coached her for about five years. She had some basic flaws in her bowling and I made sure to get them rectified. She can also bat well but was always interested in bowling.”

Utkarsh is also a dancer. She took formal training in Kathak dance and likes to dance in her free time. She was good in studies but took playing cricket seriously. The couple married in June last year.

The couple in the same profession. How beneficial is it ? Dr. Swaroop Savanur, the Pune-based Mental Conditioning & Peak Performance coach, who has worked with the Punjab team in the IPL (2021, 2022), also with the Vidarbha team and at BCCI’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) and conducted High Performance camps, said, “It will be beneficial for both Ruturaj and Utkarsha to have each other, because they both know what it takes to be a professional cricketer and thus, they both will understand each other’s needs far better. At the end of the day, cricket can be a very lonely sport and many times, I see cricketers find it difficult to open up to the various challenges they face — both off field and on field challenges. I feel, they both will find it much easier to understand each other’s needs, considering they both are in the same profession.”

Another important aspect that will be beneficial to both of them, is bouncing of ideas, strategies and being a mentor for each other with regards to the game. Today’s game is evolving at a crazy pace and every year, a different dynamic gets added to this game and thus, it will be a huge advantage to be able to have candid discussions, dialogues and debates about their love cricket.

More importantly, the mentor says, “It will be their instinctive understanding of when, not to talk about the game at all and just allow the person to be. Senior cricketers are away from their family for many weeks and months at a stretch and travelling is incessant and in these times, they both will have a greater idea about when each of them would require their time off the game, and thus, when it’s important to just be there”.

Rutujaj is now a public figure, a top Indian batsman, CSK captain and as a result of that, he will always be under greater public scrutiny. Having a partner who understands that, will be a huge plus for Ruturaj.

“For Utkarsha, having Ruturaj by her side will benefit her, because she will have a companion who can help her in all aspects of the game and which I am sure will rub off on her, as she too pursues her career to reach her own peak potential,” he concluded.

The couple married in June last year. Ruturaj is busy captaining the Chennai SuperKings team in the ongoing IPL and his wife, the 25-year-old right-arm fast bowler, playing for the Maharashtra and West Zone teams is now waiting to play the Women’s IPL.

Considering they both are in the same profession, it will be beneficial for both Ruturaj and Utkarsha because they both know what it takes to be a professional cricketer and thus, they both will understand each other’s needs better.” — Dr. Swaroop Savanur, the Pune-based Mental Conditioning & Peak Performance coach

“For Utkarsha, having Ruturaj by her side will benefit her. She will have a companion who can help her in all aspects of the game as she too pursues her career to reach her own peak potential.